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active alliance with a foreign policy directed against this
country. I do not accept that. We are just as alive to the
dangers as hon. Members opposite, but there are strong forces
working in another direction, forces of trade and commerce,
forces of geography. This country is still and will continue
to be, I trust, the greatest naval power in Europe. That is not
, without its effect when it is known that we have no intention,
no kind of afterthought, either direct or indirect, about the
territorial integrity and the political independence of Spain.
Spaniards know that very well. They know very well too
that no British war material has killed any Spaniards on either
side. These factors will I believe be important in the future.
... We have every desire to live on friendly terms with Spain,
and I believe that Spain . . . whatever the outcome will share
that sentiment/
" Then again on the 2ist December my right hon. Friend
said:
" * I have been convinced from the first that no one who
intervened in this strife in Spain was going to benefit by that
intervention. I see no reason to alter that opinion in any
way, and if other nations insist upon burning their fingers
in the Spanish furnace that is no reason why we should
do so/
" We intend to continue in the future, as we have in the
past, to be in close touch with the French Government. I
believe to-day, as I have believed hitherto, that we shall
best serve British interests, we shall best serve peace, and best
serve the cause of freedom, if we keep outsof Spain and make
our policy one of non-intervention, and do not, as the late
Foreign Secretary said, attempt to burn our fingers as other
nations may still do/*